Yellowfang's Secret Pages
Prologue :Goosefeather leads the medicine cats to the Moonstone and declares that they are performing a very important ceremony: the medicine cat apprentice ceremony. Featherpaw walks forward and nervously mews that he doesn't know what to tell his ancestors, but the RiverClan medicine cat apprentice, Bramblepaw assures him that he will know. Soon, the moon shines through the moonroof and the Moonstone lights up and seems to come to life. Goosefeather then starts Featherpaw's ceremony by calling upon StarClan, and Featherpaw becomes an official ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice. Goosefeather directs Featherpaw to press his nose against the Moonstone. :The rest of the medicine cats do the same, pressing their muzzles to the stone and falling asleep. Featherpaw's eyes flutter open and he is standing chest-deep in beautiful lush grass in a sunlit forest clearing. Trees above him are gently swaying with the breeze, and the air is heavily laden with the scent of prey and damp fern. A cat says hi, and Featherpaw turns to see Mallowfur, a pretty tabby and white she-cat with blue eyes. Featherpaw is happy and exclaims that he has missed her so much. :Mallowfur mews that even though she is a warrior of StarClan, she is always with him and tells Featherpaw that she wishes it is the first time of many that she sees him in StarClan. Mallowfur then walks away to a ginger tom and they disappear into the undergrowth. Close to where they disappear, there is a cat lapping at a pool of water. Soon a squirrel shoots by, dashing up an oak tree, with two StarClan cats chasing it. Soon Featherpaw hears his name being called for the second time. :It is a black tom this time, hidden in a holly bush. Once Featherpaw comes over, the cat introduces himself as Molepelt, and he has a message for the new medicine cat apprentice. Featherpaw is amazed that he is receiving a message on his first StarClan visit. Molepelt grunts, and continues: A dark force is on its way with the power to pierce deep into the heart of ThunderClan, and it will be brought by a ShadowClan medicine cat. Featherpaw almost doesn't believe Molepelt. Molepelt says how he used to be a ShadowClan medicine cat and the Clans drove out another Clan because of their selfishness and hard-heartedness. :Then Molepelt wails a prophecy: A poison will spring from the heart of ShadowClan, and spread to the other Clans. A storm of blood and fire will sweep the forest. Featherpaw gazes in horror, and suddenly another cat emerges from the ferns. He is called Hollowbelly, and is angry at Molepelt for spilling everything to Featherpaw, who is very young and inexperienced. Molepelt and Hollowbelly start to argue, and Featherpaw watches, helpless. Hollowbelly believes that the medicine cat code will keep the Clans safe, but Molepelt thinks otherwise. Hollowbelly then turns to Featherpaw and pleads for him to say nothing about this to any cat. Featherpaw eagerly promises to keep this a secret. Hollowbelly leads Molepelt away, and Featherpaw is left alone and confused. Chapter 1 :Yellowkit and her siblings, Nutkit and Rowankit, scramble out of the nursery pretending to be ShadowClan, warrior's defending their Clan in a raid. Nutkit pounces on a pinecone, calling it a WindClan warrior, and tells his sisters to get it out of the territory. Rowankit growls that WindClan are prey-stealers and rabbit-chasers, flexing her tiny claws. Yellowkit then leaps at a stray bramble tendril that broke free from the barrier encircling the camp, but it makes her trip and fall. Yellowkit quickly gets up, and scrapes her claws against the tendril, imagining it as a WindClan warrior, just as Nutkit did with the pinecone, growling at it. Nutkit asks if they can see any more WindClan warriors on their territory. Yellowkit sees a group of elders sharing tongues in a patch of sunshine. :Yellowkit excitedly beckons towards them. Nutkit and Rowankit scamper after her as they barrel through the camp towards the elders. Yellowkit pretends to be the leader of ShadowClan, and asks the elders if they agree that ShadowClan is the best of all Clans, or that they need ShadowClan claws in their fur before they can say. Littlebird shoots an amused glance at the other gathered elders, and plays along by mewing that ShadowClan is far too fierce for them and they don't want to fight. :Rowankit asks the elders to promise that ShadowClan warriors can go into their territory at any time they want. Silverflame, who is Rowankit, Nutkit and Yellowkit's grandmother, mews that they promise and curls down and blinks fearfully up at the kits. Lizardfang shies away from them and tells them that ShadowClan is too strong for WindClan. Yellowkit leaps up, excited, and jumps in the air. She lands on Nutkit who then starts a play-fight. Yellowkit thinks that she will be the best warrior in the best Clan, with glee. :Yellowkit begs her brother to be the WindClan warrior, because she knows awesome battle moves. Raggedkit approaches with Scorchkit and they speak scornfully towards the kits, telling them they'll be warriors by the time they were made apprentices. The two larger kits tell Yellowkit, Nutkit, and Rowankit they'll show them some real battle moves. Nutkit says all they know how to do is ruin their games, but Raggedkit and Scorchkit ignore him and begin to show off their battle moves. Yellowkit, though annoyed with her older den-mates, is amazed with the battle moves, and she wants to practice their moves too. Despite her consideration, she knows that if she tries she'll only get sneered at by the older toms. :Nutkit tries to persuade Yellowkit to come catch mice in the brambles. Raggedkit, overhearing them, says they won't catch any, even if there are some there. Nutkit tells Raggedkit that he wasn't talking to him and calls him a kittypet. For a moment all the kits freeze until Raggedkit takes a pace towards Nutkit, asking what Nutkit had called him, and Scorchkit glares at the three kits behind his brother. :Yellowkit remembers overhearing the elders speculate who Raggedkit and Scorchkit's father had been, and whether Featherstorm had taken a mate from Twolegplace. They had said that she had often strayed into Twolegplace, and that she wasn't close to any of the toms in the Clan. Yellowkit knows that it was something that they should never say out loud. :Nutkit, refusing to back down, calls Raggedkit a kittypet again. Brightflower, who is Rowankit, Yellowkit, and Nutkit's mother, notices the kits' argument and calls her children inside. As the kits go inside the nursery Yellowkit turns and looks at Raggedkit and Scorchkit. She wonders what it would be like without her own father, Brackenfoot, and what it would be like not to have a father, and have every cat think it was a kittypet. When Yellowkit notices Raggedkit staring back at her, she squeaks and dives into the nursery. Chapter 2 :Nutkit complains about being bored and suggests playing in the warriors' den. Yellowkit does not like the idea, and mews that the warriors would rip off their pelts. Yellowkit thinks about how it was three sunrises after Nutkit, Yellowkit, and Rowankit's quarrel with Raggedkit and Scorchkit, the older kits, and how she still felt uneasy around them in camp. Nutkit calls her a scaredy-mouse and challenges her to peek under the bush. Yellowkit thinks that it is too late to back down, and prepares to duck under the bush. Rowankit advises her sister to not do it, as their mother, Brightflower, is watching; Brightflower and Brackenfoot, the three kits' parents, are sharing a vole by the fresh-kill pile. Yellowkit sees that their mother is turning her head to look at them every few bites. :Yellowkit feels love and affection towards her mother, and thinks how glad she is that she looks like a tiny copy of her mother. She wants to be like her mother and father; she wants to be a warrior and a queen later in life, and raise ShadowClan warriors. Yellowkit is suddenly struck with inspiration and declares that she has a game; Yellowkit is the mother of Nutkit and Rowankit, and she is teaching them how to catch frogs. Her siblings scramble towards her to sit down in front of her. Yellowkit starts to hiss and scolds her "kits" for being untidy. :Nutkit feels the game is dumb, Rowankit, however, is amused by the game. Yellowkit, after decreeing her littermates' pelts are clean enough, starts the lesson on catching frogs. Rowankit suddenly begins to bounce and begs if she can be the frog. Yellowkit says she cannot, just as Brightflower comes over, and praises her daughter, saying she would be a great queen one day. Yellowkit adds that she will also be a great warrior. Brightflower purrs, just as Cedarstar, the Clan leader, calls a Clan meeting from the Clanrock. Yellowkit asks Brightflower what is going on, but she tells her to just wait and see, and to come sit beside her and Brackenfoot. :Brightflower leads her kits outside of the nursery to sit beside Brackenfoot. Yellowkit sees Sagewhisker, the medicine cat, leave her den. Most of the Clan appears from their dens and find a spot in the clearing. Raggedkit and Scorchkit parade out of the nursery with their mother, Featherstorm, all of them looking proud. Yellowkit finally realizes they are being made apprentices. Nutkit whispers to Yellowkit that he wished it was their turn, and that they had to wait forever. Yellowkit nods and says it was still four whole moons away. :When Cedarstar begins the ceremony Yellowkit feels as if she has a thorn in her paw and wriggles around to get comfortable. Cedarstar breaks off the ceremony and looks at her, while Brightflower tells Yellowkit to stop squirming. Yellowkit wails that she has a thorn in her paw and Brightflower inspects it. She tells Yellowkit that there is nothing there, and when Yellowkit realizes all of her Clanmates are staring at her she wishes she could disappear. :Cedarstar begins the ceremony again and when he says it was time for the two kits to begin training Yellowkit overhears a comment from Toadskip that they should not be training half kittypets. Yellowkit's fur begins to bristle, but she realizes Scorchkit and Raggedkit had not heard them and continues to watch. Raggedkit, now Raggedpaw, is given Brackenfoot as a mentor. Yellowkit fells a pang of jealousy when she realizes her father would be spending more time with Raggedpaw than Yellowkit and her littermates. Scorchkit, who becomes Scorchpaw, receives Crowtail as a mentor. The Clan yowls their names and press forward to congratulate them. Yellowkit and her littermates hang back, and Nutkit mutters that Raggedkit and Scorchkit were not that great. :With the meeting over Yellowkit flops onto her side and inspects her paw. As much as she looks she cannot find any trace of a thorn, even though her paw was still throbbing. When she sits up she notices the new apprentices and their mentors heading out of camp. Yellowkit wishes she could go with them but could barely put her hind paw to the ground and thinks that she probably should go see Sagewhisker. On her way there she notices a patrol returning. Lizardstripe, at the back of the patrol, is limping and Mudclaw tells her she should go see Sagewhisker about the thorn. She goes into the medicine den and Yellowkit patiently waits outside. When Lizardstripe emerges she is walking almost normal. Sagewhisker tells her to come again tomorrow to make sure the cut had not gotten infected. Yellowkit goes up to Sagewhisker, but realizes the pain in her paw has vanished. :Rowankit's voice interrupts Yellowkit's thoughts. Nutkit squeals at her to come and play with them, as they had found a fox and her cubs to drive out of camp. At first Yellowkit thinks there is an actual fox, but realizes it is actually a game. The elders pretend to be foxes and the kits pretend to defeat them. Yellowkit, clinging onto Silverflame, asks them if they give in and would not eat anymore cats. Silverflame promises and Yellowkit bounces off of her. She tells Yellowkit that she had fought well, and that she was sure Yellowkit would become one of the best ShadowClan warriors. Yellowkit, filled with pride, thinks that all the foxes should watch out for her.